"From sizzling rockers ("Both Be Wrong") to country romps ("Church or Train Station") to sweeping ballads ("Back to the Sea"), troubadour Pagetta commands an authority and assurance that's spellbinding throughout. This News is good news." -- Performing Songwriter, January/February 2008
"His songs have a crisp but easygoing sense of purpose, setting acoustic rhythms against melodies that chime with reflective optimism.â€
-- Michael McCall, Nashville Scene, on OTHER PEOPLE'S NEWS.
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Born and raised in Jersey City, NJ, Joe Pagetta got his musical start in the early 1990s with the melodic hardcore outfit Horror Time. After two years as the band's frontman and co-writer, Pagetta left to reinvent himself as a contemporary singer-songwriter and troubadour in the songwriter clubs of Greenwich Village in the mid-90's. He picked up early acclaim from the CMJ New Music Report ("more to do with hallowed troubadours like Leonard Cohen, Mark Eitzel and Skip Spence…") and the Aquarian Weekly "( (Pagetta) rhymes internally like a young Dylan"). Fronting the Joe Pagetta Band in the mid 90's, he performed frequently at clubs like the Bitter End in New York and the Saint in New Jersey and recorded two EPS, one prompting the Aquarian Weekly to call the band "a great acoustic pop band at work."
Pagetta moved to Nashville by the end of the decade and in 1999 released an EP of odds 'n' ends from his Northeast days called recollections of maybeville. The EP was licensed in its entirety by the Oxygen Network and hailed by the Louisville Eccentric Observer as being "filled with wonderful observations...with a right-sized rock format that would please on any John Mellencamp fan." 2001 saw the release of the mostly-acoustic full-length Small Worlds. The Rage in Nashville said it called to mind "easy-going Northeastern folk like Ellis Paul with a little sleazy 1970's N.Y. rock a la Lou Reed thrown in."
Pagetta continued to build his songwriting and performing skills in the early 2000s and soon became part of the burgeoning Americana and singer-songwriter rock scene developing in East Nashville around the Family Wash bar & restaurant. Working with producer George Marinelli, Jr. (sideman to Bonnie Raitt and original member of Bruce Hornsby and the Range), Pagetta released the pop and roots-rock Joywood in 2004, named for the East Nashville neighborhood where he resided. The album featured backing by some of Nashville's finest musicians like bassists Dave Pomeroy and Dave Jacques and drummer Griffith and a guest spot by "Bette Davis Eyes"-icon Kim Carnes. Good reviews appeared in the Tennessean, Time Out New York, The Nashville Scene, Americana UK, Now on Tour, The East Coast Rocker and more while songs were picked up by NPR, MTV and added at close to 200 college stations nationwide. Pagetta hit the road in 2004-2005 and performed in New York, Boston, New Jersey, St. Louis and Philadelphia while securing opening slots for up-and-coming bands Antigone Rising and Blue October.
In 2007 Pagetta released OTHER PEOPLE'S NEWS, a five-song EP co-produced by Pagetta and acclaimed country music engineer Steve Marcantonio.
A former journalist for his hometown Jersey Journal, Pagetta holds a bachelor’s degree in English and continues to write prose both professionally and leisurely, while currently handling media relations for non-profit cultural organizations in Nashville.
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"Pagetta is gifted with that elusive roots rocker quality of simultaneously sounding both tantalizingly familiar and altogether distinct. His deference to small town America certainly hearkens back to John Mellencamp while his gruff vocals recall more than a bit of Dave Alvin. Toss in a bit of incessantly clever Elvis Costello like turning of a phrase, not to mention Pagetta's own fondness for a catchy hook, and you've got a combination of wit and muscle that's pretty hard to resist. -- James Cassara, Rapid River Arts, on Joywood, Oct. 2004
"...a sweet roots-rock collection packed with mandolins, chiming pop melodies and easy rhythms." -- Michael McCall, Nashville Scene
"While Pagettas musicianship and lyrics were never lacking, his move from mostly acoustic to slightly more electrified arrangements, as well as his ever-developing storytelling lyrics, have only improved with Joywood." -- Whitney Sanford, EC Rocker
"... a tough but pretty new album. Joywood comes complete with 'sidewalk grit' and 'pop sparkle'." --- Peter Cooper, The Tennessean
"After hearing Pagetta's music, it might come as quite a surprise to learn he's not from the American Heartland of the Midwest or from the rugged western frontiers. It carries the twang of contemporary folk and country mixed in with pop hooks and, on his latest album at least, some spells of rocking out." -- Matt Sanders, Southeast Missourian
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